I came across this book in the MMA Special Collections while cleaning them. While it is “simply” a book of color nomenclature and standards, I was captivated by the colors and how bright they are after all these years. It is like Pantone (for designers) but this book, published in 1912, was used for systematizing color names for describing birds. The creator/author, Robert Ridgeway, created this nomenclature which is still used all over the world today by ornithologists.
Ridgeway was an American ornithologist. He was the first full-time curator at the U.S. National Museum, helped to found the American Ornithologists’ Union, and he published an eight-volume book on birds of North America among other noteworthy accomplishments.
JNLF
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